Tomb Raider: Legend Of The Nightmare Stone
by Josh14Raider
Summary: Adventurer Lara Croft has been called upon by Professor Igor Bowmane, who has asked her to travel through the depths of the Amazon Rainforest to retrieve a special artefact. The artefact in question holds an important significance!
1. Introduction

**Tomb Raider: Legend Of The Nightmare Stone**

Adapted By Josh14Raider

Disclaimer: This is based on the storyline of the Game Boy colour game "Tomb Raider". I do not own any of the characters, they belong to their respectable owners. This is just for entertainment reading.

**-Introduction**

Professor Igor Bowmane was pacing up and down along the black and white glossy tiled floor, waiting for his old friend and colleague. He is a professor and an expert in the field of archaeology, who is currently working in the ancient artefacts department at the University of Moscow. Though little is known about his character and personality, many people do know at the university about his love for researching and exploring old records and manuscripts. Most of his time is spent within the Pushkin Library of Antiquities situated within the city of Moscow. It was there that he had made an important and a very freighting discovery.

A couple of weeks ago, the professor was searching through the library's collection of old records and scripts, this time for specific ones about the Aztecs for a lecture to his students. Since these particular files haven't been touched for years, most likely forgotten about by the different library clerks throughout the library's history, they had been in a fragmented and unstructured state. The professor had decided that while he was looking for these records, he would tidy and sort out the state these records were in. This therefore meant looking through each one and ordering them in a date ascending way.

As he was processing through these records and reading every one of them, he had stumbled upon one which caught his full recognition and attention. This particular manuscript was very different to the ones he had just previously read through and filed. As not only it contained a rare tale he'd never heard of before, but it also told of a mystical ancient artefact that he had never known to have existed.

Suspicious of the discovered manuscript, the professor intensity read through his findings, each line filled him with a mixture of anxiety and fear. After finishing reading through the ancient manuscript, he thought to himself the need to take immediate action upon this finding was crucial. Because of his good nature to explore and passion for archaeology, the professor had made many friends during his lifetime and due to this new discovery he decided to contact two old acquaintances.

One named Illiat, who has a brilliant mind towards the study of ancient artefacts' of this calibre was the professor's first contact, he also is bit of a camping fanatic and lives in Peru. The professor's second contact, Lara Croft, is a well known reputable English female adventurer and archaeologist. They have been friends and had shared experiences with each other for the past few years.

He first phoned Illiat, to let him know of his newly discovered findings. Illiat was intrigued and interested to the point where he wanted to meet and discuss with the professor on the whereabouts this artefact may be held and hidden. Next the professor tried to contact Lara, but was left on the answering machine, to which he thought she might be on another journey or some sort, so he left a message for her when she got back.

A week later Illiat had arrived from Peru. He immediately met up with the professor at the library. They both got stuck down into a research team, and looked through the many directories in the library for any topic relating to the discovered manuscript and its origins. It wasn't until a few days later during a meeting together that another manuscript was discovered. This time around, the new script informed on where and when the artefact was last seen, and the properties of its mystical power.

It was during this time that Illiat became wary and cautious. He now had to visit the Pushkin Library with the professor more often, because of the continuous new discoveries. Illiat had a feeling that they were both being spied on by other interested parties of the manuscripts, whom may have discovered it long before the professor did and just waiting to make their move. He decided to warn the professor about his suspicions, to which the professor agreed with and they both made an agreement to meet up with each other in more discrete places, other than the Pushkin Library of Antiquities. By this time, Lara had been in contact with the professor and was going to schedule to arrive within days to Moscow, to further discuss the findings with them both and what course of action to take to pursue it.

Though all this changed two days before Lara was scheduled to arrive. Because of the research the professor and Illiat have been long conducting for, they had finally discovered the actual scripts which described the final whereabouts of the artefact. It was in an old journal dated after the previous script they found earlier. This was also around the time where Illiat's fears of there being a different party interested in the artefact were in fact true. He had learned that a spy had accidentally dropped a camera nearby a bus stop close to the library. The memory card that was used for storage in the camera had contained pictures of the Pushkin Library of Antiquities from every angle, and snapshots of both the professor and Illiat individually at different times.

Due to this incident and being unsure of the third party's motives, Illiat decided it was best not to wait for Lara at the airport. His decision was to travel straight away to the location and camp out there. Waiting for her arrival once the professor would debrief her on what has happened. Illiat told his plan to the professor. He was very motivated that this plan was for best. The professor although reluctant, since he wanted Illiat to wait with him for Lara, was in the end swayed and went along with Illiat's plan. It was then settled. The professor would wait and meet up with Lara at the Pushkin Library of Antiquities to debrief her on the situation. While Illiat will take the earliest flight to the supposed location of the artefact and camp out near the site, waiting for Lara's arrival and then would explore the area with her.

Professor Igor Bowmane was pacing up and down along the black and white glossy tiled floor, waiting for his old friend and colleague to arrive. It wasn't until he sat back down into his leather chair that Lara had finally appeared, and stepped into the huge Pushkin Library of Antiquities. She had just recovered from a recent adventure and once Lara got home, she had found the professor's message on her answering machine about the manuscript that he had just discovered. After a week of rest, she had booked a flight to Moscow to visit and meet up with the professor to discuss his new findings. She approached the professor, who was sitting at a nearby desk, smiling and looking upon at his old friend.

"Ah Lara, my old friend, so good to see you again, I'm glad you could make it" said the professor peacefully.

"It's good to see you too, professor" she said, as they both shook hands to greet each other. "Now, let's get down to business, what have you found?" Lara had asked. She looked down onto the desk and observed the manuscripts that were spread out on the desk.

"The reason why I have called you here, Lara is regarding an ancient artefact" began the professor. "The artefact in question is described here in these manuscripts, have a good look at this". The professor pointed to what looked like a man holding a crystal on the manuscript.

"It looks like some kind of crystal" suggested Lara.

"Indeed, this crystal stone holds within it a most evil presence... a spirit if you will" the professor stated. Lara took another look at the manuscript, gazing down into the fascinating drawn picture.

"Spirit"! "What do you mean?" Lara questioned. Again she glanced more closely at the picture on the manuscript. She saw that the crystal, this man was holding had a lot different power symbols drawn surrounding it.

The professor then began telling Lara the tale that he discovered during his research efforts. "Over a thousand years ago, in Central America, reined an evil king, named Quaxet. He ruled over the Inca, Aztec and Mayan peoples for a time. Quaxet sacrificed thousands of his own people as offerings to an evil god who demanded blood to feed its spirit. For over 40 years his reign of terror continued until the high priests of each tribe joined together to plot and defeat him. They killed Quaxet, and condemned his sprit to the crystal stone, known as the Nightmare Stone. The stone was sealed inside an obelisk. This obelisk was then buried within the walls of a vast temple". Both Lara and the professor looked at each other, as a sight pause was set between them.

"Where is this temple?" wondered Lara. The professor handed over a picture of Illiat to Lara and a copy of a map. Lara examined the photo of Illiat, he looked like a mid thirties man, short jet black hair with circular glasses.

"It has just been discovered, deep in the rainforests of the Amazon. A friend of mine, Illiat led an expedition to find it. He will meet you at the base site beside the temple. Illiat was going to meet you at the airport but, because he fears that other interested parties will try to get in first he will meet you at the site instead. Be careful Lara". She stood up, and understood well what she had just been told.

"I will professor and thanks" said Lara. She turned away from the professor and left the heavily polished library, all ready for another adventure.

Over the past few days Lara prepared her flight and gear for the journey and adventure she was about to embark. She packed in her backpack with the following items for her inventory:

Sunglasses

A torch

The copy of a map of the route Illiat took for exploring the rainforest site to find the temple, given to her by the professor

Her signature 9mm pistols

A large first aid kit

A handful of flares with a lighter

Some dynamite (just in case she may need it)

Lara boarded her flight to America and thought about what the professor had told her in Moscow. About the evil king Quaxet, the Nightmare Stone which contains his living sprit and also Illiat, if he had already started exploring the temple structure or anxiously is waiting for her arrival. Just then Lara nodded off asleep. It had been over 2 hours until she heard the pilot of the plane announcing that they were ready to land in South America. After leaving the airport, she called a taxi to drop her off at a village nearby the rainforest. Once Lara had arrived at the village, she can explore within the rainforest using the map route to the whereabouts of where the temple site is located.

Since being dropped off in the local village by the taxi, Lara wasted no time and headed straight to the entrance of the rainforest. Surrounded by canopies, trees and vegetation, Lara made her way through the crowded rainforest. Utilising the map guide that Illiat had left for her, she would find out where he would have set up camp to wait for her. Following the route was very mysterious for Lara, since not only was it further than she had expected, but as she got nearer to the temple site, it became more difficult to track where she was in relation to the map. Furthermore, it did not help Lara with the increasing amount of different species of wildlife, the ever increasing quantity of green vegetation and the hot temperature as she delved further into the rainforest.

'Where is it?' she thought to herself, as she kept going, looking from right to left and checking the map to give her some clue to where she was within the rainforest. It wasn't until later, right into the afternoon that she had found an open area, whilst continuously searching deeper into the depths of the rainforest. This new found area was exactly what she had just been looking for.

Lara stepped forward from the overcrowded forest and scanned the area. She mainly saw two major standout objects. A vast built up temple which stood a few metres away in front of her, and moreover to the right of it was what looked like a deserted campsite. There was nothing else major, but Lara noticed that the surface of the land was very flat too, which was peculiar after travelling through the rainforest. Also there was no vegetation surrounding the temple itself and the ground was very dry, which was very strange since it is situated within near the very heart of the rainforest.

It was silent, the only thing Lara can smell in the air was the smoke from the burned out fireplace near the camp. Lara walked over to the campsite, hoping that Illiat may be inside the tent, "Illiat!'', "Illiat!" There was no reply. Lara searched through the camp. She looked around it but found no sign of Illiat or anybody for that matter, she was alone. Again, Lara walked around the campsite and the green tent, looking for any clue to show reason why Illiat wasn't there. She then suddenly stumbled across circular broken glasses on the cracked dry floor, 'Oh no, Illiat! What's happened to you?' a fast thought passed Lara.

Unsure of what had happened to him, she quickly drew her pistols and looked around again, just in case she was being spied on, but nothing had changed in her surroundings. She then stared at the temple complex. Since Illiat cannot be seen anywhere and thought maybe he would have been taken by an unknown party in the temple. As she walked up the uneven layered stone stairs to the entrance of the temple, she thought to herself what kind of assailant could have taken Illiat, or whether it had been a group of some sort. These thoughts disappeared when she had reached upon on top of the stairs, straight in front of her was the entrance to the temple, inside it was pitch black, nothing can be seen.

The darkness had crept out Lara a bit, but she remembered that she had packed a flashlight in her backpack, so it would be easier to see once inside to explore. She reached for her backpack, took out her flashlight and turned it on, with the newly shining beam pointed at the unwelcoming entrance. It had shone brightly enough to make out a path that Lara can walk through onwards. Taking a deep breath Lara started her descant inside the temple, holding onto the flashlight tightly. 'Hang on Illiat, I'm coming!' and she disappeared into the darkness.


	2. The Temple

**-The Temple**

For the few steps Lara took within the temple, she noticed a few things that you wouldn't expect to see in a temple of this calibre. Immediately, Lara noticed that the texture of the ground has changed from a metamorphic stone layered ground from both the stairs and entrance way of the temple, to a grassy muddy and damp surface internal. Furthermore, as Lara took even more steps into the temple, it seemed bigger on the inside then it looks from the outside. But this might be due to it being too dark for Lara to see properly. Carefully and cautiously, Lara delved further into the temple, for what seemed to be more like a cave environment to her. 'I ought to be careful, there could be traps set up for intruders' Lara thought , as she scanned the area in every corner using her torchlight, being wary of what she may see or encounter.

She moved the light beam to what seemed to be like the ceiling of the temple. Again it looked like the muddy ground surface that Lara was standing on, but the difference being that rock was very well integrated into the ceiling, helping it being firm and supportive. It was that moment, that Lara sensed a horrible stench underneath her nose, she shone her bright light onto the ground. There! She was standing on the edge of a... SPIKE PIT!

It took Lara by surprise, as not only with its presence so near to the entrance was unexpected, but also by the amount of bodies of those poor souls who entered the temple lost or exploring, ending up in death and decaying away in this set up trap. A saddened tear dropped from Lara's face, as some of the victims to this trap would have been innocent people meaning no harm at all. A quick thought arose for Lara, and she was hoping that Illiat wasn't among those decaying bodies within the pit, but as she scanned the spike pit using her torch, she saw no signs of a new victim like no new blood had been spilt. This could mean that there may be a chance, Illiat may still be alive! Unsure, Lara moved on from the spike pit, carefully avoiding its slippery edge by manoeuvring around its edge as steadily as possible.

After safely passing the first trap, Lara moved swiftly along in the temple, using the light as a guide to light her way through. "Eek, Eek" a sound Lara heard from above, she shone her light at the ceiling once again, only this time it was being occupied by a family of vampire bats. They were flying around aimlessly causing no harm and ignoring the new presence, so Lara ignored them too and carried on with her path. After a few minutes of looking around, Lara was held back by a locked passageway barred by a stood out stone carved pillar door.

Using the flashlight, Lara looked around in her surroundings, but could not find anything that could help in this situation. She then decided to look above, and saw a ledge which could lead to an alternative way or have the solution to the locked passageway. She jumped and hoisted herself up onto the ledge, and saw that there was another path that was layered out in front of her. She shone her light to see the way through and began to walk across the upper path. It wasn't until she stopped near the end of this path and saw what looked like a switch. Lara being the adventurous archaeologist as she is was interested in what particular function it does. Firmly holding the ancient dusty switch, and pulling down on it, there was a shudder in the temple and then a sound and vibration of a moving door being driven upwards by a network of rusty cogs.

'Clever' Lara thought, and quickly jumped down from the ledge and retraced her steps to the previously blocked passageway. Next Lara was faced with a dead-end wall, the only way of preceding any further was exploring within a hole she found to the side of the dead- end wall. Making sure this hole was not a trick into another spike pit. Lara shone her light in the hole and looked at every angle into the darkness. There seemed to be no danger into the hole and she dropped down into the hole without hesitation.

As she fell into the black hole, Lara realised she made a rare mistake in her judgement to go down. When she got to ground, there was a sudden snap and hiss near her right shoulder and left shoulder, 'Blast! I have fallen into a snake pit trap!' With it still being dark to see clearly, she acted fast and reached for her backpack to grab the lighter and flares. Instantly she lit up a flare and dropped it onto the floor. Following this action, she drew her pistols ready for some action. Because of the brightness of the flare burning away, Lara was now able to see how many snakes there were. She counted out four surrounding her! Having to be quick to react and saving her skin from a vicious poisonous bite, Lara shot the first two snakes that were on her right side. Each successive bullet was tearing apart the snakes' long and huge bodies, as they both started to fall to the ground. As both snakes' fell to the ground, Lara rolled over to the right side, and finished off the remaining snakes' in the area, all hissing before they fell to the ground and did not move thereafter. Sometimes Lara regretted killing wildlife, but normally she has to do it for her own self defence. With the flare finally extinguished, Lara withdrew her pistols and brought out the torch once again for further exploration in the second floor of the temple.

There was an opening at the end of the snake pit room, and it appeared to be a safe bet that this may be the right way to lead to Illiat's whereabouts in the temple. Lara with caution jumped down into the opening and suddenly felt her feet slipping away. She realized that she was on a slope sliding downwards into what seemed to be the core of the temple. Initially Lara thought this could have been another trap, but the slope ended and brought her to a massive chamber, though something was off-putting about this room. It looked like no other area Lara had encountered since entering the temple, it was a huge room filled with one of the biggest statues she hadn't seen for a while. Not only that, but it also had a different layout compared to the previous two floors Lara had just come through. The floor had changed into a stone layout, and the walls are in better condition than before. Furthermore the room was a bit brighter than the previous floors, so Lara didn't need her torch anymore to light her way through the complex.

Gazing at the statue that stood out in the middle of the chamber, Lara walked towards it, intrigued with what she had found. As Lara stepped towards the stairs, she looked upon the statue, it looked like an Aztec figure of importance and underneath it was an 'X' glowing bright white orb. She stepped further near it, and reached out to touch the glowing white orb. As she touched it something strange started to happen, and suddenly Lara was lit up in a light blue flame engulfing her body. Amongst the confusion, she also began to hear a gravelling voice in her head as she stared into the statues' gaze. 'FOOLISH INTRUDER'! 'You shall pay for your greed'. 'You have awoken the guardians of the temple and they shall not rest until you are DESTROYED'! The voice disappeared, Lara passed out.

Sometime later, Lara awoke from her unconsciousness, and quickly looked round at her surroundings. It had still been silent has before, but this time the area was now much brighter thanks to flames being ignited at the altar and other places that weren't lit up before. This allowed Lara to see more clearly within the temple and where she is. Furthermore, Lara spotted a trail of blood near where she had passed out, 'Whose bloods that?' She quickly examined her own body anatomy, to see if any injury had been inflicted on her while she was out, but couldn't find any sign. Curious and hoping it wasn't Illiats' blood, Lara decided to follow the trail of blood which led her away from the altar, where the cross white orb was still glowing.

The blood trail had led Lara into the way she came about into the altar room. However thanks to the area becoming brighter than before, Lara was now able to see that the blood trail had leaded into a small passageway at the left corner of the room. She walked towards it, and peered through ...nothing but darkness. It wasn't until she looked fully downwards and saw a slope that escorted into an underground area, also the blood stains were still strong enough to see. 'Well, there's only one way to find out what's down there' Lara thought and decided to carefully slide down into the underground hole.

The slope ended and Lara fell a quite a feat into a pool of water, the blood trail from before was gone. There was a landing edge on top of the water surface, Lara hoisted herself up onto it and looked around at her new surroundings. The environment had changed, this time instead of being a damp and muddy place like it was in the upper levels, it now had become richer. E.g. the grounded bricks had changed from a worn out, dullish, decaying cream colour into a more glossy, red jaded colour. Furthermore, the richness of the area also shows by the waterfall that was flowing where Lara had fallen into, 'where was the water source coming from?' she thought to herself.

It was an environment to admire greatly. But Lara remembered that Illiat still needed to be found urgently, so she decided to continue on the journey by walking upon the landing, carefully observing if any traps are nearby ready to set off. She stumbled across a ladder at the end of the landing, which would lead her further into the core of the temple. Turning round, she started her descendant downwards the ladder. The descendant didn't last long, and without delay Lara was faced with an approaching scorpion, but this was not any scorpion.

It looked different and behaved not like any scorpion she had ever seen before. This particular one was double the size of an average scorpion, it was in fact similar to the size of a small dog breed, and it looked vicious to the point of the pincers snapping continuously, ready for a piece of Lara's flesh. Quickly, Lara drew her pistols and shot the upcoming scorpion with two bullets into the body. Black fluid started to spill out onto the floor and Lara moved on from the encounter, without giving it much of a thought.

Again Lara came across a second ladder, which descended even further within the temple complex. But compared to the last one, this one seemed to be bigger. So she started to climb downwards on the ladder, and stumbled across another landing right behind in the middle of the ladder.

Interested in what secrets may hold in that area, Lara jumped and somersaulted backwards, so then she was able to grab the edge of the landing and pulled herself up onto it. At the end on the landing there was another ladder, but this time it was leading upwards, 'How many ladders could there be in this temple?' She climbed up and came across a pillar blocking the pathway. Making sure it was weak by knocking to see what kind of sound it would make, she decided to use her dynamite to allow her to continue pass it. Lara took out the dynamite out of her backpack, lit the cable, threw it near the pillar and leapt out the way of the explosion.

As expected the blast impact made the pillar crumple and fall, all in which cleared a new pathway for Lara to explore. As she was about to walk through where the pillar was standing, she saw another slope in front. Lara looked down to see where it would lead to and saw two spike pit traps, with a small landing above in between them. On the other side of the second spike pit trap, was another ladder leading upwards onto a ledge where more secrets can be explored. Deciding quickly whether to dare the trap or not, Lara moved and slid downwards on the slope.

It was more slippery than expected and if she had fallen onto her backside, death would await her at the end. Lara managed to keep her balance on the slope, and as she got nearer to the edge of it, she used all her strength and jumped from the slope of the ledge. It had been quite scary leaping over a spike pit, as anything could have happened, and Lara could have fallen to her death just like that if the timing wasn't right. But Lara being the adventurer as she is, has got some good experience in perfect timing, and as well as being a skilled gymnast was able to successfully make the jump and got onto the landing.

Next was another jump to the ladder, this one may prove to be trickier than before, as Lara observed, you had to not only make the jump, but also grab the steps on the ladder too. It was best for Lara to do a running-jump, as the gap between the landing and the ladder was longer than before. Another spike pit trap was ready below for anyone who failed the challenge. Readying herself Lara had taken a step back, took a deep breath then ran as fast as she can along the landing and jumped the ledge. Stretching and reaching out for the rusty ladder steps, she made sure not to look down at the mouldy spikes underneath her.

She made it successfully, likewise without hesitating grabbed onto the steps and hoisted herself on the ladder. In a split second, she was climbing up on the worn out wooden surface. Climbing it didn't take long and Lara made her way on top of the landing, there she saw a switch similar to the one found in the upper levels to open a previous passageway.

Curious of the functionality of this switch, Lara pulled it back and she was met with two things, first she was met by a small rumble as the ground started to shake. Next she heard the sound of passageway being opened up not too far away. Then looking over to her left she saw that another trap was set up for when an intruder presses the switch.

This was a dart shooting gargoyle and it started to shoot darts straight into Lara's direction. Having to react fast, Lara ducked as the dart shot passed her around mid height 'Phew!' Lara sighed 'That was close'. The last she heard of the dart was a thud when it hit the wall on the other side. Still being very wary of the dart shooter, Lara rolled to the end of the landing and saw what seemed like very impressive architecture, during when she was travelling through it. The shape of how the brick work was layered like a twisted snake shape, Lara was admiring the quality and the advancement it would have been when it was built many centuries ago. She got to the bottom of the well- crafted architecture and found herself stuck in a situation, which was not allowing her to progress any further.

There was no further pathway to go on! It just seemed to be a bottomless pit of darkness, 'I wouldn't try it', and once again Lara scanned around at her surroundings to see if there had to be any way to get through. Then she spotted it. While looking up, she saw some vines that were hanging from the ceiling. These looked strong enough and climbable, similar to the monkey bars Lara uses at her mansion in her gym to allow her to get from one side to the other. This may well have been another trial to test the intruder, so Lara jumped and grab on one of the vines. One by one, she grabbed each one as they came by in a style of a monkey.

Lara managed to get the end without any hassle and was able to safely drop onto the landing on the other side. She was quite pleased with herself that she was able to do this, as it was a difficult skill to master. Next Lara faced another dropdown, but this time it had been safe to just drop into it without any danger or injury, so that's what she did. Now, at last she was glad she had pulled down the switch from earlier, as this was the doorway which had opened up.

Progressing through the doorway, there were four arched doorway passageways she could take 'These must all be linked in some way or other'. So Lara decided to start from left to right 'No doubt I will be returning here anyway', she entered the far left passage. As she was walking within the passage, Lara was met with a damp wet floor. Curious to see what lay ahead, Lara jogged and found an underwater tunnel, and she was staring at the entrance hole of it.

Since Lara wasn't prepared for any sort of swimming, she hadn't brought along her swim gear which would have been more suitable. Lara tooted to herself and started readying herself to dive in and explore with what she had on. The underwater passage was fascinating, as it was designed as if it wanted to hide something. It was filled with spiked pits at the bottom, and electric eels ready to attack those who ran out of air or who have fallen from exhaustion.

Lara swam through carefully missing both the electric eels that sounded and looked threatening, and the spikes staged at the bottom, when she saw them not too far into the depths of the tunnel. She had only been there for a couple of seconds, until she reached a blocked way 'Darn!' This was situated right underneath the underwater tunnel, so quickly Lara swam upwards gasping for air one, two, three...she found it.

It was there staring at Lara, the switch to open up the doorway to find what is being 'protected', Lara got out of the pool and headed over to the switch. Another rumble happened, and Lara re-entered the underwater tunnel to see if the doorway had now opened up. To her delight it did indeed. Also on the newly shown floor was a blue handle bar, which had just been dumped on the surface. Lara picked up the blue handle and swam back to the entrance of the passageway. She started to examine her new finding. It was similar to a bar of gold, but this wasn't the case as it was coloured in sapphire blue, quite weighty too. She placed it in her backpack and since there was nothing else of interest in the far left passageway anymore, Lara decided she will move onto the next one.

The passage on the second left lead Lara to what seemed to be a corridor, but it was infested with a lot of booby traps, this time darts were firing from the ceiling. It was too dangerous to pass, as each row seemed to be shooting one by one, 'there must be some way of getting pass this trap', and this is where it struck Lara. She would spot to see if there is any pattern in the way each one fires its associated dart, then apply that pattern in how she should dash pass through.

By watching each dart being fired, Lara saw a pattern, the first one fired then the second, then the third etc, and when the last one has been shot (sixth one), it always restarted back to the first one. The way Lara approached this was by waiting for the first dart had been shot, then approach and wait for each one being done etc. 'Last one!' Lara had progressed through the dart trap. She proceeded onwards and now there had been vampire bats ready to attack her!

She dodged one which was coming straight at her, its mouth wide open wanting to bite. This was when she decided to draw her pistols and kill the threats, BANG, BANG, BANG! Each vampire bat fell to the floor, unmovable. Whilst walking further in the passageway, Lara noticed something strange about the ground she was on, it didn't feel stable. Just then she got to a dead end, and a thought struck Lara, 'What if I set dynamite to the floor, and have a look underneath?'

Comparable to last time, she got out two pieces of dynamite from her backpack, lit each one and threw them onto the unstable floor that she had just walked upon. BOOM! The ground started to fall and became a rubble on top of the real ground. Lara searched throughout the rubble to see if she can find anything, and there it was. Another handle similar to the blue one, but this time it was coloured yellow, she stored it into her backpack. Lara then managed to avoid the dart trap at the entrance once more, by repeating the same process as before, only inversing the method instead.

The third passageway didn't have any traps, so Lara causally walked through to search around more thoroughly. She stumbled across some stairs leading up to a huge glass dome standing in front of her, as the passageway had led her into a big shadowed room. She looked through the glass, and saw a stand holding what look like a gold bar piece. Next to the dome in the room were three slots. Lara examined these slots and each one were coloured differently, one was red, the other was blue and the final one was yellow. 'Those must be the handle slots, keys for the glass dome', Lara inputted the two handles she had already collected into their appropriate slots, waiting for something to happen. However, nothing happened. 'Blast, I still have to find the red handle... of course the final passageway', Lara rushed to the final passageway hoping to find the red handle with ease.

The fourth and final passageway leads Lara into what seemed like a hall, but not just any old hall. The floor was already booby trapped with spikes, but these weren't any old spikes that she had faced before. These particular ones were hidden underground and after a few seconds they shoot up above the ground, and then retract back down, only to repeat the process again. Lara hadn't seen anything like this before. The mechanics of this were incredible and amazing.

On the other side of the spikes, there was a doorway and upon the wall of the hall were different landings. There was no doubt that each one of these landings would inevitably lead to another opening above in the hall. Lara was intrigued to see what findings she would see up above in the hall, so while the spikes were stationary underground, she jumped onto the first landing and observed around. The next few landings weren't too far off Lara's jumping range, so she pounced upon each one until she reached to the last one.

Right in front of her was a ledge and a switch, without a doubt for the doorway on the ground floor. She hopped over and pressed the switch. She heard the doorway moving upwards and then silence. Quickly Lara returned to the ground floor, being careful not to drop upon the spikes below. She had made it, and there was the red handle pass through the doorway. Lara grabbed the red handle and made her way back to the dome room.

There she inputted the final red handle into its associated slot and had initially expected the dome to have been lifted or something. But this wasn't the case. Suddenly dangling boulders from the ceiling started to fall! Lara rolled out of the way and the boulders fell onto the dome, first cracking and then breaking the glass all around it. 'Well that's one way of bringing down the dome'.

Lara step forward onto the stairs, and began to walk upwards to observe her new discovery. The golden bar wasn't a gold bar at all. What it seemed to be is a panel piece of some sort, she picked it up, slowly inspecting the material. It wasn't heavy at all and it was a dark yellowish colour. All of a sudden, the ground started to shake violently, and Lara began to fall downwards 'A Trap Door!'


	3. Royal Tombs Part 1

**-Royal Tombs Part 1**

Lara fell and landed onto a small ledge, 'Phew!' She examined her new surroundings. The place looked even a richer environment than before. Flame bowls were all lit on the walls, so it was even brighter and easier to see ahead. The walls have changed into an emerald green colour and the landing floor to a rich purple. Lara was impressed with the environment and was about to admire the quality, but remembered that she still had to find Illiat and fast, 'He has to be here somewhere'.

There was another ledge underneath where she was, so she dropped onto that ledge and observed the ground below this one. All that Lara could see is only a slope, and yet she couldn't even see pass through it. She wasn't sure whether if it was safe to use or not. Being wary, Lara dropped down on the slope and began to slide upon it, and there she saw it, a spike trap and a ladder. Carefully making her timing just right, Lara jumped onto the ladder and grabbed the rail tightly, so she wouldn't stumble and fall into the spike pit. She climbed up the ladder and hoisted herself up on the ledge.

"UUuuuHhhhh"! Quickly Lara looked round from hearing the noise. It was coming underneath where she was. She looked down and saw a... MUMMY! This was unheard of before, an un-dead walking! Lara nearly almost vomited at the mere sight of it, but remembered what she had heard at the altar in the temple. 'You have awoken the guardians of the temple and they shall not rest until you are DESTROYED'! What she had just seen may be one type of guardian, the un-dead walking and attacking anything in its way.

She leapt down and had finally seen what the mummy had been approaching... ILLIAT! In a rush, Lara drew her pistols and started firing at the mummy... Unbelievably it was still moving! BANG, BANG, BANG! It took about 8 shots until the Mummy had finally fallen. Lara saw Illiat panting very loudly, the mummy may have already attacked him! She moved towards and kneeled beside him.

"Oh Illiat, are you hurt?" Lara asked.

"It's too late for me Lara. I've lost too much blood. I'm...dying!" painfully said Illiat.

"How did this happen to you? What's going on?"

"Lara, did you touch the temple altar?"

Lara sighed "Yes".

A very worried expression crossed Illiat's face "Lara, you have unleashed the guardians!"

"What guardians? Like that Mummy?"

Illiat thought of all the horrible things the guardians will be: Mummies, Skeleton Warriors, Un-dead Wizard guardians and worse of all... He then explained the following to Lara.

"They are the spirits of the ancient protectors of the temple. They were entombed here to make sure no-one would try and take the stone. They would kill any intruder!"

"Then, Illiat we've got to get out of here!"

"No Lara, you must stop the others".

"What others?"

Illiat had a horrible flashback episode, on what had happened to him earlier.

"While I was waiting for you, I was ambushed and tortured. There were mercenaries who wanted the map to the Nightmare Stone".

Illiat then remembered being just left for dead, near the altar by the ruthless mercenaries.

"They took me to the altar and made me show them what must be done. Then they found the map and left me there to die. But I managed to trick them. They actually didn't get the entire map. They cannot get all the way down to the snake guardian. Only He holds the final part of the key that will unlock the Nightmare Stone".

Illiat reached out and gave Lara a map, and started panting for breath more violently.

"This map here will help... you get back... up to the altar. Destroy the Nightmare Stone Lara... It is PURE EVIL!"

Illiat's last breath gave out, he died in Lara's hands and she hugged him with only a few saddened tears to shed. It was that moment, she noticed Illiat was holding something else which had dropped onto the floor, and it was a key. 'I wonder what this opens'?

Lara ran through what she had just been told by Illiat, that the altar had actually held the Nightmare Stone all this time, which must have been the white 'X' orb that was flashing inside it. Furthermore she was not the only one in pursuit of the Nightmare Stone. Mercenaries had found their way into the temple too, and were searching for a way to unlock the stone as well. She was not alone, 'So I have to face the guardians of the temple, the mercenaries and the snake guardian to get the final key, all in a day's work!'

Lara left the body of Illiat, she wanted to fulfil his final wish and destroy the Nightmare Stone before it reaches into the wrong hands. She turned back and started walking towards near the end of the ledge. There she saw another landing at the bottom. Dropping down upon it, Lara saw another doorway shut off. While looking around for a way to get through, she spotted a keyhole 'the key!' Lara grabbed the key which Illiat was holding in his hand, inserted and turned the key. A smile crossed on her face, as the door all of the sudden moved in an upwards direction, clearing a new pathway for Lara to take. 'Thank you Illiat'. She began to walk along the opened path, wondering what will she will come across during her pursue.

It wasn't long until Lara was faced with two ledges above where she was standing, she could see that one to her left was blocked, and wasn't able to see what options that was held within. She pulled herself onto the right ledge and there it was, another switch, she approached it without looking first, and then it happened. On the floor, there had been a pile of bones with a sword next to them, and while Lara was moving closer to the switch, it then all became too sudden.

A bespoke whirlwind circulated around the pile of bones and the sword, and it only took a few seconds until standing before Lara was a ... Skeleton Warrior! Creped out by this new enemy, Lara was unable to move, she was stunned at what she had just seen. However the newly formed skeleton warrior was not taking any chances. It had one mission, to kill any intruder that tried to cross.

Ready to attack, the skeleton warrior took a swung using the sword at Lara, luckily she ducked just in time and gave it a good roundhouse kick in response into the skull head. The skeleton warrior was knocked back, but still was not taken apart by the kick. Lara had to think quickly, before the un-dead warrior will strike back at her again. Then she remembered what Illiat had said 'They are the spirits of the ancient protectors of the temple. They were entombed here to make sure no-one would try and take the stone'.

Maybe that whirlwind was some sort of magic, which had reacted with the bones and the entombed sprits to fuse together the warrior. 'I could try my pistols, it's better than nothing', Lara drew her dual pistols and started firing on the main ribcage of the skeleton warrior, and to her surprise it had worked! The skeleton warrior reacted heavily to Lara's shooting. First it began to step back as if it was absorbing the impacts of the bullets, but unexpectedly it started to sprint towards Lara. Like being in its last breath wanting to desperately stab her body with the sword.

'Phew!' the skeleton warrior was no more. It had fallen after Lara increased the pace in her shooting style at the warrior, as it was running straight at her. Whilst it had fallen, a wisp of smoke surrounded the warrior, and out of the blue the bone remains were vanished into thin air. The encounter was an unusual one for Lara, she had never come across anything like it before, and it was starting to freak her out a bit. 'I wonder if I will face anything much worse' she thought chillingly and set about pulling the switch, and getting onto the other ledge to pass through the now unblocked doorway.

The next obstacle that was stopping Lara continuing her journey was another locked passageway, but this time there was no switch or key hole to be found. Instead, in the middle of the room she was in, there was a wooden stand and nothing else in the room except for the fire bowls that were lit for room brightness. Lara examined the wooden stand, on top there had been what looked like a picture but all mixed up, it had 14 pieces with one piece missing. What it was when Lara came to conclusion, was a single fifteen block puzzle or game of fifteen, 'Wow, I never expected the Aztecs to set up this type of game to challenge the intruder', Lara had played game of fifteen often before, so she had a method of solving this type of puzzle. She saw a representation image within the wooden frame. It had gold and stone properties mixed together. In her mind she identified the placement of the pieces and numbered them, so they would help her solve the puzzle.

Using this principle, Lara solved the puzzle in a matter of a few minutes and in the end, the puzzle itself was a picture of an Aztec drawing. Pleased with solving the ancient puzzle, Lara was rewarded with the sound of the doorway opening and revealing a new passageway. Not only that, also one of the flaming bowls to the left of the doorway had been extinguished and dropped something onto the floor. Lara picked the object up and was surprised at what it was, a key. But this was not just any old key. This one had been hand-crafted so the turning point had been sculpted into a skull. It had been magnificent to hold such a relic object. It was shame though it had to be used to open something. Lara stored it away into her backpack and went through the newly opened doorway.

There had been a very long corridor, which Lara had to cover quite a distance and then she was met with a huge arched tunnel. "UUuuuHhhhh" Lara turned her back quickly and saw that she was being followed by another mummy right behind her. Each step was steadily walking at her direction with arms raised ready to grab and kill. Knowing it takes a good couple of bullets for the mummy to fall, Lara made some distance between her and the mummy. She drew her pistols and began shooting at the bandage chest. Instantly, the mummy had taken a step backwards from the impact of the first few bullets, it was certainly weaker compared to the previous mummy she had encountered. It had fallen after around several bullets.

Along the corridor Lara was met with two options, there had been a hole in the ground she'd had passed. The hole looked a bit steep for Lara to fall within, and at the corner there was another passage leading onwards. She decided it was best to keep following the passage, and upon this it had turned a corner with the ground been risen. Having to make a jump onto the formed ledge, Lara saw a switch a few yards away.

Two black scorpions approached Lara on the way. Having to deal with them, Lara drew her pistols. Each pistol pointed at their dark bodies, and she pulled the trigger, causing both pistols to fire. Both bodies started to spill a pool of black blood between them and they were no longer moving towards Lara's direction. Lara went up to the switch, it had been hanging down from the ceiling, being cautious that this was another trap, she pulled on it. Without warning, there had been a sound and a feel of water gushing around underground, Lara thought 'Maybe there had been a carving underneath, which the water may have come from'. Since there had been a dead-end in the passage she was in, Lara backtracked her way to where the manhole in the passageway was. Now, it was water filled to the brink.

'Do I have to get my clothes wet again?' Lara dived into the manhole. Fortunately it had been suitable size for her to squeeze through. Lara had a bit of difficulty seeing in the water, but managed anyway thanks to her waterproof flashlight. The beam had been bright enough for Lara to see and swim through the layout of the flooded route. During which she came across a few more electric eels to avoid while swimming too.

After a few moments, Lara was running out of oxygen, she needed to find air quick before she drowns. Looking around she saw nothing that could help, and that was when the panic had arose. As swiftly as possible, Lara swam through, continuously scanning for an airway breather along the way, until the route now led upwards and there it was. It was like light at the end of a dark tunnel. By now at this time, Lara's lungs were bursting for air. She changed the style of her swim into a fast paced front crawl and started her descend upwards, hoping it wasn't her mind playing tricks.

A rush of relief came to Lara. Unanticipated she was met with a breath of fresh air within her lungs, and was treading water above the surface. A few moments after catching her breath, there had been a ledge in front of Lara to climb up upon. A few yards away from where she was standing were hall-like doors. She opened one of them. They were indeed very heavy, so she had to use nearly all her strength to just move it a few feet. She entered through the double doors, and inside saw a huge skeleton statue in what seemed to be at the end of the hallway. But as she was staring at the spellbinding statue, a figure emerged from the shadows, it was wearing black cloaked robes with a hood and carrying what seemed to be a walking stick for support.

Lara saw the figure and drew her pistols, waiting to see what move it would do next. It stopped in place, only a couple of meters in front of her. It looked up and Lara gasped, it reminded her of what she had seen in the movies, but there it was a ... reaper!


	4. Royal Tombs Part 2

**- Royal Tombs Part 2**

The reaper gazed at Lara with it's lit up red eyes within the eye sockets of its head skull and out of the blue, something began to form within the palm of its right skeletal hand. It looked like some form of energy, but Lara was not taking any chances. She had guessed it was another form of a guardian, along with the mummies and skeleton warriors she had encountered so far. Then on the spur of the moment, there was an ear popping sound as the reaper had cast an enchantment heading towards Lara!

Just out of the corner of her eye, she just managed to miss the attack by ducking. Having seen enough of this new enemy, Lara hastily rolled to the left, missing out the angle of the reaper's attack range and drew her pistols ready to fire.

The reaper was slow, and Lara used that as her advantage as a way to methodize a way of engaging the reaper. She began to fire on the reaper. It was standing ever so still, not reacting at all to the bullets firing from the dual pistols. It took around 10 bullets to the hunched skeleton body of the reaper to finally react to Lara's attacks. The magical reaper set out 4 wisps of magic energy balls whizzing in Lara's direction, following her every move she made!

Lara had to react fast. The room she was in is huge, so to dodge these new attacks, she would have to be cunning and aerobatic about it. Rapidly the first ball was at her tail, so in response just as it was about to hit her, Lara cart wheeled to her left and the ball vanished into the ground. The next 3 energy balls were not far behind, and these were aimed directly at her. On course though, an idea began to form for Lara. She ran towards the wall of the room, on the double, as the wisps of the magic energy were closing in right behind her. She then ran upwards on the wall as much as was capable and back flipped.

Just as she was hopping backwards, Lara saw the three energy balls evaporating into the wall she had jumped off upon. She landed safely and speedily redrew her pistols to assault the reaper once more, doubling the pace of her firing, as she moved closer towards the still-reaper. Finally the reaper began to shake and tremble and all of a sudden began to fade away, similar to dissolving into thin air. The gloomy reaper was gone, Lara was out of breath and speechless from the encounter.

She came to after a few moments of recovery, and stood in front of the vast skeleton statue. In the centre was the chest and head, also it looked like it was holding something at the ribcage. The outer rim of the centre skeletal body was similar to a star shape, and all was decorated with a dark emerald green. In the middle was a hole. Next to it was a carved symbol of the same skull that is on the skeleton key. Lara grabbed the skeleton key out of her backpack, inserted it into the hole and turned it ninety degrees to the right.

She was met with the resounding sound of a 'click', and as expected the ribcage of the statue opened up, revealing a wooden stick. Lara picked up the wooden stick and examined it. The item had more quality then a normal wooden stick, it was more like part of a staff with the way it was, 'maybe a segment of a staff?' The segment was sizeable to fit into her backpack. It was time to move on from the statue and Lara further looked around in the statue room, seeing if there was a passage to advance head on. There, to the far right was a small archway which had leaded Lara to the next room in her adventure.

Lara entered through the small archway, and immediately she spotted a pile of bones a few yards away, 'Oh great, here we go again!' She inputted new clips for her pistols and prepared herself for the whirlwind of magic, bringing the skeleton warrior and sprit back to life. She stepped forward, instantaneously her expectations came true, and she pointed her pistols in the direction of the newly formed skeleton warrior. This time around though, it was a bit more difficult to manoeuvre around for her. Because it was in a narrow corridor- style passage, Lara would have to react more quickly to the warrior's upcoming attacks.

With the sword in hand, the skeleton glanced at Lara with hollow black eyeholes and begun to charge at her, ready to take a swipe and cut up Lara into pieces. She certainly wasn't going to let that happen, and with both pistols she began to swing bullet fire at the skeleton's body. Each bullet that was fired, it had begun to take effect on the skeletal body of the guardian. A few seconds later, a whisk of smoke engulfed the skeleton, as it seemed to have taken too much damage that it can handle from Lara's pistols. It was only moments before it vanished into thin air, just like the previous guardians.

Lara pressed onwards, and had come across another slanted slope. She slid downwards and was met with a different change in colour tone in the ever changing surroundings. Instead of the bricks being a purple and green tone, they had changed into a glazing yellow brick with red flooring. Also the flame bowls still lit brightly had constantly remained the same as before.

The slope had escorted Lara to a lower level, and straight away two large snakes spotted her and slithered towards her with fangs at the ready to bite her. "Hiiissssss"! Having to rapidly react to this, Lara drew her pistols and a bullet in each one of the snakes had stopped them in their tracks. She withdrawn her pistols and viewed the level she was at. There was nothing of interest, except for what looked like stairs, but they were recessed, so she was unable to climb up on them. 'There must be some kind of switch to retract the stairs' and indeed there it was.

She glanced at the corner end of the level and saw the hidden switch concealed in the shadows. Lara strolled along to it and pulled down along its old rusty handle. Promptly, the recessed ladder retracted its steps mechanically, Lara stared up where the ladder went, it was a very long descant up, 'well got to start somewhere' and so to began her climb upwards.

It took a few minutes until Lara reached the top of the ladder. There was no ledge to be found through, so while on top of the ladder holding on tightly to the steps, she scanned around. Behind her was the ledge that she had been looking for. Lowering herself on the ladder, she jumped and back somersaulted onto the ledge. Glad, she had made it successfully on the ledge without any problems. She carried on jogging on the landing and came across a different designed opened doorway. Lara peered through it, there was an enormous room standing in front of her, and it was filled with four main pillars supporting the massive architecture.

These pillars were aligned perfectly like the edges of a normal square, and strangely had handles on them 'maybe part of another puzzle'. Lara examined the room even further. At the end of the room were two massive doors, but they were locked and had no keyhole or switch nearby it. There had also been a carved diagram on the wall, maybe showing some sort of clue on how to solve the puzzle. The picture showed a diagram of the pillars themselves, and what looked like directions on how to use them next to it. However, she also saw that the way to solve the puzzle was worn away unable to be seen, 'Blast!'

Lara also spotted a trapdoor in the middle of the four standing pillars, and was wary of it as it could have lead into another spike pit, or something much worse. Lara approached the pillars and scanned the detail of them. To her surprise they were all the same except for the positioning of them.

She decided that she will try and move them all in different directions, so she took hold of the handle connected to the First Left Pillar, and moved it in one semi-circle to the right. Nothing happened, Lara had a good think about it 'Maybe when the pillar reaches its correct position alignment, it will give out some sort of sound?' To test her theory, Lara grabbed hold of the same pillar she had been turning, and started to move to her right again. This time turning in one revolution keeping her ears in check for any sort of sound, as she turned the pillar slowly.

"Click", it was certainly quieter than she had expected, but that satisfying sound had just confirmed her theory to be true. Happy with herself, Lara moved onto the Second Left Pillar and started to move that to her right direction, using the same method as before. "Click", another contented sound, confirming the position of the pillar and Lara moved quickly onto the First Right Pillar in the complex. There was a difference though in this pillar and no doubt in the Second Right Pillar too, they moved in the left direction this time.

'Shouldn't make much difference' and Lara pushed the handle of the pillar, moving it to the left. She did two whole revolutions until she realized something was not right. 'Why can't I hear any click?" This started to worry Lara, and so she decided to go at a slower pace this time, making each turn ever so more precise. "CLUNK"! Instead of it being a small sound this time, the pillar had sunken into a hole, to what seemed to be a particular alignment deeper underground.

'Now that was precision work'. It had exhausted Lara, the amount of concentration she had to do to get it in the correct position. She moved onto the Second Right Pillar, the final one. Same method as before, Lara had to concentrate even further for the right side pillars compared to the left. She only moved it a couple of centimetres, and precipitously the Second Right Pillar already aligned in its correct position, with a resounding "CLUNK"!

With all the pillars properly realigned into their suitable locations, one of the locked doors had swung open slowly, while the trapdoor in the centre of the pillars had flung open too. Lara's first chosen choice was to explore the room pass the locked doors, and so she strutted over there and began to take in the sights of the newly opened hall.

The arrangement of the hall was simplistic. Straight away in the middle was an altar with a hole in the middle of its carvings. It was sealed tightly though, so Lara couldn't see what secrets may have been held in there. Beside the altar were two lit flame stands and at the corner of the hall was another doorway, but had been concealed and there was no keyhole or switch within the area. Stuck with what can be done, Lara backtracked to the trapdoor which had to be yet studied. She came over and using her flashlight, since it had been a little dark within, shone the light at every corner.

There had been a ladder which Lara could climb down and from what she could see. There was no immediate danger for her. Without hesitation she got onto the ladder and began climbing downwards. The descant wasn't long and Lara was standing on a platform in a chamber filled with a lot of different landings. Below was a long way away, 'no doubt the bottom of this chamber also holds the key to the hole in the altar'. Lara began to jump to the next platform along, and kept looking out for the next one to jump onto next, until she got closer to the bottom.

It was about the third platform away from the bottom, when Lara saw the inevitable, another trap. But this time it hadn't been a spike pit, it was something worse. 'Rolling Spindles, what next'! These were razor sharp spindles that rolled upon the ground, moving continuously right and left by both deep slopes at the ends of each corner. Lara stared at them, one wrong move and she would be cut up in half. She eyed out for any concealed passage or some sort, and... She found it!

When looking just right, there had been a collapsible single tile just to the left of the spindle pit where the second spindle had been rolling. 'If I put all my weight onto that floor, it should collapse and reveal another passage...hopefully'. Lara had to time it just right, or face the consequence of being sliced in half by one of the rolling spindles! She got onto the last platform just above the ground and waited, until the second spindle had gone passed the collapsible tile.

Heading to the right direction, furthest away from the spindles, Lara made her move. Hurried, she jumped down onto the spindle pit, and sprinted across to the tile. Initially she thought that when she had step foot on it, it would collapse automatically, but it didn't! Fearful for her life, as the oncoming second spindle was gaining ground towards her direction fast, she jumped and stamped the tile as hard as she could.

Astonishment had filled Lara, as the last stamp had made her fall through the hole when the tile had broke and collapsed with the added extra weight. Her life was saved from the clutches of the spindles, and to her amazement on the ground there was a key. 'This must be the key for the altar above'! The hole she was in was small enough to peer through, so that she can see the positions of the two spindles that were stopping her from reaching the first platform above. Lara had timed it perfectly, while the two spindles were at opposite ends, she elevated herself onto the ground and made a run towards the first platform. She had made it. 'Phew! It really is all in a day's work'! Lara began to retrace her way back upwards and back into the altar hall, where she would insert her new finding into it.

A turn to the right with the key and Lara listened closely for a 'click', saying it had been unlocked, but as she was doing this, something sinister came to mind. Just as she was turning the key, Lara hadn't noticed that two whirlwinds happened at either side of the hall, and two new skeleton warriors were formed. They approached Lara slowly and carefully, not giving away their position, then as they were only a few meters away, they readied their swords to a similar style of an execution.

At the corner of her eye, Lara saw she was being ambushed. In a catch of breath, she tripled back flipped near the edge of the hall and drew her pistols ready to duel. There was two of them, 'This will be difficult if they worked as a team', and one warrior whom was wearing armour began to pursue Lara. The other was the same as the previous ones Lara had faced before, so her battle plan was to first attack the un-armoured skeleton warrior. Once it had fallen, she would next find a way to best the other armoured warrior. Lara had to keep moving, as the skeleton warrior with the armour was more ecstatic to attack Lara whatever the cost.

With both pistols aimed at the defenceless skeleton warrior, she began firing at the warrior's body while continuously manoeuvring around the hall. After a few shots, the first skeleton warrior disappeared in a wisp of smoke. 'Now for the final one', her focus had changed to the other guardian. Lara swiftly learned on how armoured skeleton warrior did its movements, and what weaknesses had been unknowingly presented to her. Analysing didn't take long, when Lara saw a weak point in its armour. Behind the warrior, right where the spinal cord was connected to the neck and head. But how was she going to get behind it, this warrior was quicker than the past enemies, and for sure if Lara had the opportunity, she would have to make it count.

What could she do, 'I know' as a scheme formulated in a matter of seconds. Lara sprinted towards the large doorway in between the altar and pillar rooms, and hid herself next to the opened door. Her plan was to wait for the skeleton warrior to come through. While it is looking for her, Lara would come out with her pistols at the ready to fire at the skeleton's spinal cord. Moments passed, and the skeleton finally appeared through the doorway, scanning the room for Lara. Unknown to the warrior however, it was going to be ambushed. 3...2...1... BANG!

An effective hit! The armoured skeleton warrior evaporated into thin air with a wisp of smoke. With the guardian now gone, Lara withdrew her pistols and retried opening the altar. Click! The altar made that well-known unlocks sound, and Lara shoved the top of the altar up. Another staff segment was revealed inside. Lara picked it up and stored it into her backpack. Unexpectedly the sound of a door opening happened within the hall. Wondering what surprises await for her next, Lara proceeded through the newly opened passageway.

A long winding corridor had made Lara wonder, for how long she had been in the temple complex, and how much further until she reached the snake guardian. The environment of the surroundings had now changed back into a mixture of purple and green glazed bricks. Lara had finally reached the end of the corridor, seeing a ladder leading downwards. She stepped onto it and started to climb down, 'it seems I get going further and further underground at this rate'. She had arrived at the end of the ladder and proceeded onwards through a large doorway.

There was a massive room that stood with unseen architecture. At the two sides of the room, there were two gigantic mirrors, showing the reflection of the room itself and strange enough the flooring too. Also the flooring was styled as a checkerboard, so there were two primary colours, which were a white sort of porcelain style tile, and a shiny dark diamond black tile mixed together. On the other side of the room were another pair of two medium doors, the same as the ones she was about to pass. It certainly was impressive, but Lara had suspicions, 'It's the perfect place to set some nasty traps'.

It was then Lara spotted an inscription written on the wall, it was in the language of the ancient Aztecs. As luck would have it, Lara had basic understanding of some forms of the language, and she was capable of making out some of what it had said. The statement had said the following. 'To those who wish to bypass the room, the mirror is the...key of reflection...Reward comes to those who step on the right floor... Death comes to those who step on the wrong one'.

After reading the inscription, Lara took a second glance at the mirror and immediately saw what was hidden underneath some of the tiled flooring... SPIKES! It had been a cunning trap. As it was designed to trick the weaker mind of those, who don't observe their environments carefully around them, and awarding those who have the patience and awareness. Lara studied both mirrors even further. They actually not only showed the placements of the spikes, but also revealed that some of the tiles had mechanical workings underneath them. 'I wonder what they are for'. Then it came to her, 'Of course, the door must be locked, therefore those must be pressurized floor switch workings and once all of them have been stepped on, it should unlock the door'.

Finally Lara checked the mirror for one last time. She saw that some of the tiles were just normal safe platforms for her to step on when she needed it. Using the mirrors, Lara had pictured the layout of the floor, and converted it into a grid diagram to see which order she would target the pressurized floor switches. She had planned her route and taken her first step onto a tile from the entrance. It was a safe platform, and Lara moved onwards towards the first pressurized tile that she was going to step upon. The sound of a sunken tile had filled the room, as Lara had placed her foot flat onto the first pressurized floor switch.

'Time to move onto the second', and Lara wasted no time to getting the second one with jumping over and avoiding the series of spiked booby traps around. "Tick"! The second pressurized floor tile had sunken a single centimetre within the ground. Lara had another look in the mirrors to refresh her memory of the layout of the room. She saw that two spike tiles were in front and to her left too. Lara hopped over the spiked tile in front of the second pressurized floor, and was standing on one of the safe platforms. Diagonal to where she was the third pressurized tile was in sight. Lara stepped in that direction and was met with another sink from the tile.

The next one was easier, as it was diagonally to the left, and Lara stepped over to the mechanical tile. She felt another sunken feeling as the tile lowered from Lara's weight. The following tile was at the other side of the room, utilising the safe platforms, Lara was able to make it to the fifth pressurized floor. Next she set about getting to both the sixth and seventh tiles, as they were about at opposite ends. 'There last one!' She got to the final seventh pressurized floor, after hop scotching downwards to the sixth pressure tile, and upwards to the last one. The concealed exit in the room had now been unlocked as Lara had heard it being nearest to it, and she began to make her way towards it.

Inside something was awaiting her arrival as Lara approached the room, she could sense the cold feeling, similar to the feeling of being watched as she entered. Lara drew her pistols and pointed at the figure, it had been a bit too dark to see at the moment, until Lara's eyesight readjusted to her surroundings. It took a few moments and then Lara saw another...reaper!

A similar one to the previous reaper, this one was wearing a velvet purple cloak but looked exactly the same as before, 'I hope this one is more challenging' Lara thought as she began to take aim. The reaper was beginning to create an energy ball ready to unleash it at her, but Lara was taking no chances. She got aim of vulnerable parts of the reaper, and then commenced to rapidly fire at it. Surprisingly after a few critical hits, the reaper started to tremble and shake freakishly, and out of the blue vanished out of sight. Pleased that it was unable to attack her, Lara withdrew her pistols, and then searched around the area for any secrets it may hold.

She came across another vast dirty gold statue, this time around it had been of an Aztec priest and it had its hands out holding something. Lara collected what the statue was holding, and it was the final piece of staff segment. Delighted, Lara took out the other two segments she had already gathered and connected them together, forming a carination of a staff.

Unknown for what she would use it for, Lara held it in one hand while re-exploring the room she was in. Lara had now noticed that when she had taken the segment off the statue's hands, a new doorway was opened. It had a ladder running down, so Lara began climbing downwards. When she reached the bottom the descant had lead her to a chamber. The chamber was decorated, as if it were of some importance like a shrine. In the centre of the chamber, there was a huge coffin with two statues next to it holding flame bowls. Lara walked over to the coffin and examined it. It was carved and decorated with some magnificence as if it held a very important secret. Lara tried to budge the opening, but it was sealed to tightly, there had been a pattern for something to be inserted to remove the seal.

Then she pulled the staff closer to her person, inserted one end into the opening and began to push using all her strength. Almost straight away, the seal had come off and fallen to the floor. Lara hoisted herself up onto the top of the newly opened coffin. Inside the interior of the coffin was a dead body of a skeleton. 'Maybe one of the 3 priests's who locked away Quaxet into the Nightmare Stone' Lara thought, as she remembered the conversation with the professor about the subject. The skeleton was holding something, and it was glinting, Lara picked up the object. It had been the second panel piece! Lara stashed away the panel piece into her backpack, and a new doorway had opened up showing Lara a new passageway. Cautious, she went through leaving behind the coffin of the fallen priest.


	5. Treasure Chambers

**-Treasure Chambers**

A small corridor had led Lara into one of the most beautiful, yet messiest room she had ever come across. Accurate layered bricks she was standing on were of a cream colour, and felt green emerald filled backgrounds, among those were piles of gold stacked everywhere. Different types of treasure were held in these chambers, as Lara saw with her own eyes. The sheer amount that was stored, she could name many of the treasures that were left. Diamonds, rubies, bronze, silver and most of all gold in many shapes and forms. It would have been jackpot paradise.

But Lara was only interested in one object, the Nightmare Stone, so she moved on from the wonders of the treasures, and found an arch doorway leading to yet another room filled with more valuables. But there was something else or someone else through the doorway that was admiring the treasure in the chambers, not just Lara herself. She spied on the other person who was wearing an explorer kit, hat and everything with a bag. He was looting the gold and was marvelling the quality of treasure that was in front of him. Immediately he didn't seem dangerous, but Lara was going to take precautions and drew one of her pistols. With the pistol at the ready, Lara approached the thief holding the gun to one side of his head.

"Don't move please" she stated quite firmly.

The thief stopped in his tracks of looting, turned around and gazed at Lara, with expressing a lot of fear in his blue eyes and mumbling mouth.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Lara asked.

"Don't hurt me! I'm just a gold hunter. I don't want any trouble" he quite vastly said.

Believing him but still wary, Lara eased of him a bit.

"How do I get down lower in the temple?"

The gold hunter thought for a bit and came up with the answer.

"The legends say that there is a room with sun and moon statues. You must insert amulets into the statues to continue. But it is too dangerous! I never go near this!"

Satisfied with the new information obtained from the hunter, Lara then pointed to her right as a signal to go somewhere.

"Now get out! The curse has awoken the guardians and you must go NOW!"

Looking like he had just seen a ghost, the hunter made a run for it with his collected gold, and that was the last Lara saw of him. She pressed onwards in the room, wondering how on earth the hunter made it into these chambers. 'There must be an alternative way in' she thought, but it didn't matter too much. Using the information given by the gold hunter, Lara had to find two amulets, and insert them into the sun and moon statues to proceed even further. At the end of the chamber she was in, Lara had spotted a wooden ladder in the corner and ascended upwards into the upper levels of the complex.

She made it to the top, and on the landing where she was standing, there were three passageways. Two of the passages had symbols on the archways above them. One had the symbol drawing of a sun, while the second had the drawing of moon. Using the same principle as she always follows, Lara chose to start in the sun passage. Then move onto the moon path, and finally the one without the symbol on top. Lara began her descant into the sun passageway, she sought out for the sun amulet, which no doubt will be hidden in the room she was about to enter.

In fact it was a different situation then Lara had expected. Straight away in the new room she had just entered, there was a huge statue of a wildcat covered in pure gold and decorated in riches. When Lara investigated the statue from top to bottom, in the mouth of the wildcat had been some sort of amulet. She got up onto the leg for a closer look and saw what it was ... 'The Sun Amulet'!

But it had been enclosed at the edge of the mouth, so there must be a switch somewhere to open it, and allow the sun amulet popping out of it. Lara searched around the room for anything that resembled a switch. While doing this, she came across another ladder leading down to the lower levels, underneath the room she was in. Nothing was where she was, so Lara decided to make her way down to the underground level. This allowed further exploration, and hopefully she would find the switch leading for the wildcat statue to drop the sun amulet.

She made it, and was instantly met with the first trap set up for anyone seeking the associated wildcat switch. On the ceiling in the small passageway where she was standing, there had been 3 slicing blades, few meters apart continuously retracting up and down. These blades had very sharp points at the ends of them, and Lara was nearly tempted to back down away from the passage. But she was able to pluck up the courage, and thought of a way to get pass the blades unharmed. In the end, the only method that Lara can only think of was to see when the blades were retracting upwards away from the ground, then to carefully double roll pass them. This would ensure that Lara was in a low position, and she was able to avoid the sharp points piercing her body. Lara waited until all the slicing blades had started to retract then made her move.

She tucked herself into a ball like shape, and began to roll as quickly as possible. Making sure she passed through the three bladed traps. She had done it successfully, and without a scratch too. Walking through the passageway, Lara was lead into a small room, and at the end there was the switch! But Lara sensed something was not right, she felt not alone.

She drew her pistols, ready to see if her senses had proved her suspicions correctly. Soon, she had her answers as she peered through into the room. At one side of the room, there had been what looked like a ... mercenary! This definitely was not what Lara wanted, as she remembered how they had treated Illiat brutally, they had beaten him and left him for dead. This mercenary was armed with a polished AK-47 and holding it ever so tight, as if his life depended on it. Furthermore, he was wearing ragged clothes and had long jet black hair dangling down combined with a beard.

Taking a few deep breaths, Lara jumped out with her pistols raised aimed perfectly at the mercenary. "Freeze"! Lara shouted, the mercenary swivelled round and out of the blue began firing his AK towards Lara's direction. Having to react quickly to the firing, Lara dodged the oncoming bullets from the mercenary's AK, and without any choice Lara had to duel with the mercenary. Maybe she'll have to be forced to kill him in the process. It had to be self-defence though, so Lara had to formulate a plan to attack the mercenary while he was distracted by something. Then it sparked in Lara's mind, she would wait and while he had to reload his AK, she would gain the upper hand. This didn't take long as Lara had to already dodge about 20 bullets manoeuvring around the room as quick as she can. In some short seconds, it had finally happened! His AK clip had ran out of bullets, and the mercenary was in a rush to reload, but didn't see what was coming at him. SWOOSSH!

A loud thud echoed within the room, as the mercenary had been hit hard by Lara's foot in the head. He had fallen down quite violently to a state of unconsciousness. Since the mercenary was down, and there now was of little threat from him, Lara took the AK clips he had and stashed them into her backpack. She was tempted with taking the AK with her, but decided against it. The AK would have slowed her down, and it would have made the journey more difficult. So she took it apart by breaking the muzzle and handles, until it was a broken mess on the floor. Lara went over to the switch waiting for her to pull upon it, which she did, and in the process had heard something drop onto the floor in the above level.

Avoiding the slicing blades using the same method as before, Lara made her way back to the top floor, and had seen that the wildcat statue had now has the mouth wide open. There it was, the sun amulet laid on the floor, wanting to be picked up by Lara, she examined it closely. It was a divine piece of craftwork, shaped as the morning sun, shame it was need to be used later on. Lara made her way out of the Sun room and back into the three passageways. 'Now time to get the moon amulet' and she headed through the moon passage.

Instantly, Lara knew what challenge was going to be ahead of her, when she spotted a diagram to her right wall and the passage leading in the left direction. 'A Maze'! Lara had a fascination, and thoroughly enjoyed mazes. In fact she had one trimmed out for her in the mansion gardens back in 1997, until she converted it into a quad bike track in late 1998, after acknowledging the layout of the maze to well. She studied the diagram to her right, showing where she was starting and where the moon amulet been stored from intruders.

It had been simpler then she had thought it would have been. The moon amulet was located in the centre of the maze. With this information of the layout of the maze in Lara's long term memory, she began the challenge. Making her way turning right, a long narrow passage was in front of Lara. Remembering the diagram, it was supposed to be a first left turn, straight on, second right turn and finally a first left turn. Lara did as the diagram told her, but something arose as she was heading for the final passageway leading to the moon amulet.

The turn was blocked by a soft wall. Lara continuously knocked on the wall, seeing if it would collapse or do something. Then it reminded her, that she still had enough dynamite to blow down this wall. Lara searched through her backpack inventory and found some dynamite. She lit it, and then made a run to the corner, so she wouldn't feel the impact of the blast. BBOOOMM! The soft wall had exploded into rubble, and had formed a new passage leading Lara to the sanctuary of the moon amulet. It had been encased in what seemed to be some kind of jewellery box. Lara opened it and inside was the crafted luminous half moon ornament. Again it was a thing of beauty, just like the sun amulet.

Lara backtracked back through the maze, and into the hall with the three passageways. Since both the sun and moon amulet rooms had been infiltrated and searched through, Lara went through the third and final passageway. Right at the end was a ladder leading downwards, into a room filled with two vast statues, and a massive golden trapdoor in the middle. When Lara got down from the ladder, she observed the two statues. These were exactly the statues that the gold hunter had mentioned earlier. One was shaped in a similar fashion of the sun. It was gold plated and was marvellous to look at, while the other statue was a turquoise blue colour shaped of a whole moon.

Both had offering plates at the lower end of the statues, first Lara inputted the sun amulet to the sun statue. Secondly she placed the moon amulet into the offering plate of the moon statue. Without warning, the golden trapdoor in the middle had flung right open, revealing another lower level within the chambers. Lara judged the trapdoor. No danger was to be seen, only a landing within safe dropping distance, so she leaped through the trapdoor.

Lara landed in between a corridor, one side leading to the left, the other to the right. Quickly making her decision, Lara chose to explore the left pathway. It had led her into a room filled with brilliant sunlight from the ceiling. It was interesting of how the beam of sunlight had made it so deep underground. It then occurred to Lara maybe the mirrors had been set up in the tunnel above, to reflect and bounce off light from one place to the other. Also what was the reasoning to why it was so important that sunlight was reflected into this room? Since what Lara saw was basically nothing except another trapdoor, to where the sunlight was shining from above.

This was when Lara spotted a map of the particular room she was in. It had shown her that there is more to it than meets the eye. It had been a four storey room, with a huge ladder at the corner of the hall-like room, allowing access to each level. Enthralled by the concept, Lara was eager to see what function this room does. She would start at the lowest level and work her way upwards once every storey had been explored.

The lower levels had led Lara into what can be described as a mixture of a dudgeon and a basement. Straight away the first thing that you would see is the bespoke giant snake statue. It looked vicious, as it was a monument of a cobra snake in the colour of indigo blue, with black patterning on the back. Furthermore, its mouth was wide open, and the attention to detail of the inside mouth was immense, fangs, tongue, everything was there. But there was an eye missing above, and where the green eye had been present on the left hand side, there was a small diamond shaped hole, exactly where a key might go in. Lara searched throughout the lower level for some kind of key to go into this hole, until she felt an unstable area in the floor.

Without hesitation, Lara prepared herself for a hard kick into the ground and WHAM! The floor started to collapse into mould and rubble, and a small opening was revealed to Lara. There it was! A key sculpted as a snake was hidden below inside the unstable floor. 'That was strangely easy' thought Lara, and she hurriedly inserted the snake key into the diamond shaped hole. Lara was expecting something big was going to happen. However unpredictably the left eye of the snake statue fell on Lara and bounced on the floor. She came over and picked it up, the eye was shiny emerald green with a small pattern engraved inside it. Not knowing what it may be for, she stored it into her backpack for possible later use. Lara had seen enough of the lowest fourth floor, and decided to move onto the third floor to see what secrets it may behold.

The third floor had a much smaller space compared to the bottom level. With only consisting of a blocked doorway and some sort of puzzle implemented onto the wall. There were a series of small switches on a board, each one having a symbol of x and o on top of them. Then she recognised that those symbols were on top of the blocked doorway, plus these symbols were arranged in some particular order. Scanning across Lara read the order 'X, X, O, X, O, X, X, O, O and X'. She looked at the switches, and initialised formulating which switch to pull down and next.

First she pulled down the switch marked with X, then X right near the end of the board, next O straight in the middle and so on. Until finally after pulling down the series of switches in the order shown on top of the doorway, Lara was prized with the door rising above. Showing her what was hidden pass through. Laying there on the dusty floor was a silver key, 'I wonder where this goes'? Lara picked up the key, and put it straight into her rucksack. The third floor had now been fully explored, so Lara moved onto the final floor above she hadn't been on yet.

The second floor had been the most majestic of the levels. It had contained many properties about it. Firstly in the centre, there was the biggest blue sapphire gem Lara had ever seen. Holding it was a pedestal made out of a mixture of bronze and gold, and it also had a carving of a Mayan figurehead. Surrounding it was a carving on the wall. It looked like a drawing of a rising sun in a dark purple colour. Not only that, but also bolted onto the wall nearby it was another stand, but this time the stand was holding nothing. It had been an oval shape, and it struck Lara, 'Of course, the snake eye would fit into here!'

She gripped the snake eye from her backpack and placed it onto the stand. Moments had passed and nothing had happened. It was then Lara had noticed what she had failed to spot earlier. There was a keyhole beside the pedestal, lured by what function it does, Lara examined the keyhole. It was the same shape as the key she had just picked up on the second floor. She got it out, inserted it, and turned it clockwise.

All of a sudden, the trapdoor above on the ceiling had opened, and the brilliant sunlight from the upper floor had come flooding down, shining upon the sapphire gem. The light began to intensify, and abruptly the gem started to shatter under the pressures of the heat and light. Until it fully shattered, Lara saw that the gem wasn't just a treasure itself but was also was used to hide an object.

The sunlight reflected and had shone brightly the object in question. Lara wandered slowly over to the object and had finally seen what it was. 'Another panel piece'! Before it got too steaming hot from the sun beam, Lara snatched it from the pedestal, and stored it away into her backpack. She had now explored every part of the left side of the corridor, which she had previously dropped into from before. She was now eager to see what other wonders were held in the right side of the corridor.

Glad to have fully explored the left side first, Lara slid down upon the cream/yellow coloured slope. Very nearly, she got muddled up into the deactivated slicing blades that were hung from the ceiling. Without thinking twice, Lara shot pass through them as they became activated once she passed them, continuously swinging up and down. In front of Lara's vision was another long corridor. She embarked upon it, until she stopped right in the middle of it, as something caught Lara's eye.

A bar had been left on the floor by someone. Just stranded there right in the edge of the corridor, Lara picked it up and examined it. Heavy had come to mind first. It was a proper gold bar and it just had been left there, no normal person would do that, 'perhaps something happened right in this corridor'? She shrugged off the suggestion and placed the gold bar into her backpack. She certainly felt her bag getting heavier, but it didn't stop her determination to finding the keys to unlock the Nightmare Stone. She continued her walk along the corridor.

Having got to the end of the corridor, it had brought Lara to a large room, which had three passageways coming out of it. One going to the left side of the room, one in the right direction and the final was straight in front. Standing in the middle of the room, Lara decided to check out the passageway that was leading straight onwards. She strolled over to there, and instantly she was barricaded by a blocked gateway. Lara tried to see if she could budge it due to its age, but it was too secure to even move it one centimetre. Because of this, Lara reviewed the narrow passageway she was in. She had discovered a small green carpet on the ground a couple of meters away from the gateway.

The carpet had a stitching pattern of three gold bars, stacked on top of each other like a pyramid. Then suddenly, as Lara was about to touch the richness of the carpet, some writing appeared on the carpet. It was in the Aztec language. Lara read it out to herself. 'Sacrifice the three golden treasures to open the door of a new pathway'. As soon as she read this line, Lara got out the golden bar she had retrieved, while travelling through the past corridor. She'd placed it to one side of the green carpet.

Lara had to find the other two golden bars for the gateway to open, and she betted that the other two passageways in the previous rooms would both lead her into one bar each. Backtracking her way back into the room with the three passageways, Lara first went along into the left passage. Straight away as Lara entered the left passageway, she was met with a dead-end. 'How could this be?' she had a good feel of the wall and a few knocks to make sure it wasn't a hard secured wall.

Reaching out for her backpack, Lara searched for her last few remaining dynamite. She was left with only one stick in her rucksack, and Lara took out 2 sticks to ensure it would blast through. KA-BOOM! The wall foundation was knocked out of proportion, as it revealed a new circular room built right behind it. Skipping a lot of brickwork which was blown onto the floor by the impact of the blast, Lara made her way through into the small circular room.

Right at the edge lying on the floor was another golden bar. Happy that no traps were set out, Lara picked up the bar. She brought it to the green carpet with stitching and placed it beside the other golden bar. 'Last one' Lara thought, and made her way to the final unexplored right passageway.

It must have been a 100 meter corridor, as Lara walked through the right passage. Unknown to her what was going to be at the end, she carried on walking. She was near the end of the passageway, when she heard footsteps in the room it was connected to. Fearing it was another mercenary. She took out her pistols and began to creep forward. She seemingly to have stumbled across a medium sized library, but this wasn't no ordinary library filled with books!

It was instead crowded with treasures, and there, wandering about was a rugged male mercenary! Searching through the treasures, he was armed with a Colt M5 machine gun and had short dark hair with a heavily tanned skin. Lara knew that she would have to duel him, but didn't know what to do. She remembered what the previous mercenary did as she shouted 'Freeze' at him, and for all she know, this one may prove more of a challenge. Undecided, Lara improvised and walked out of the corridor. She'd walked straight behind him with pistols aimed perfectly at his body. He still didn't notice Lara, and out of the blue, he was met excruciating pain in his left leg.

"ARRGH!" He fell to the floor, wondering what had happened to him. He saw he had just been shot in the leg. Quickly, the mercenary turned around and had a good look at his assailant. It had been a woman, with a pistol pointing at him and he was fuming with himself. As a last desperate act, in a rush he grabbed his M5 and was about to shoot the lady to death. But Lara gained the upper hand, and with a good kick to the head, knocked the mercenary out cold. He really didn't know what had hit him. Lara went for his M5, took it apart and had taken his clips into her rucksack.

It didn't take long for Lara to search top and bottom for what seemed less likely a library and more like a treasury room. While doing this process, Lara had spotted a heavily decorated jewellery box at the corner of the treasure room. Interested what it may hold, she went over, opened it and she was stunned at what she saw. Two diamonds, one bright ruby red, the other a dark sapphire blue had been placed inside.

On the lid of this jewellery box, Lara saw an inscription engraved. It had said, 'Entrust these at the bat passage, you will open the way to the snake guardian's lair'. Intrigued by this discovery, Lara stashed away the jewellery box into her backpack, and continued to search for the final golden bar. 'Finally I've found it', the golden bar was sitting atop a pile of fake golden bars. To find out the real one, Lara had to weigh each one. The heaviest was the real one, while lighter ones were artificial ones. Rummaging through for a small amount of minutes, Lara managed to find the actual bar, by comparing it to a counterfeit one.

She made her way back to the gateway for one final time, and placed the last golden bar on top of the two she had already placed previously. As expected, once the all the golden bars were present on the mantle carpet piece, the mechanics of the gate began to lift the gateway. This showed Lara a new passage, which she can now use to pass through in order to continue with her journey.


	6. The Caverns

**-The Caverns**

Leaving the brilliance of the Treasure chambers behind, the environment had changed drastically from the wonderful properly built structure of the chambers, to a damp, cold and mouldy area. It had been disgusting and grotesque. Lara stepped forward and immediately in front of her was what looked like a pool of waste. It was full of dirt, smelly and strangely of a dark purple colour. It felt more like a sewer than a cave for Lara, as she was nearly tempted to hold her nose in, while travelling through. But she needed that second hand for what was about to be upcoming.

Another ledge was on the other side of the purple coloured pool, so Lara prepared herself for a big jump, not wanting to end up inside the pool of waste. She stepped backwards, and did a run-and-jump. To Lara's relief both of her feet had ended up on the ledge of the landing. It was a small landing though, and again Lara was faced with another pool of waste. Only this time it had been a lot bigger, and the other ledge was about 50 meters away from her. Knowing that she would be unable to make the jump, Lara scanned her surroundings. She found above in the ceiling that vines were dangling down, possibly capable of supporting Lara's weight, as she might give monkey swinging on them a go.

'Just keep looking straight ahead, concentrate on getting to the other side'. Lara continuously thought to herself, not wanting to look down at the purple goo. She dropped onto the ledge, having made it pass through the large pool of wastage goo. Immediately it was only a small ledge, as it had lead Lara into another spike pit, one of the worst condition ones she had encountered. The spikes had decayed and rusted to a point, where it nearly looked no longer like your average daunting spike trap.

Lara took no chances, and another ledge ahead of it was already in sight. She hopped over the trap, and now she had made it to a dead-end. Lara scanned everywhere for a passage to proceed onwards. Just at that moment she spotted a manhole there integrated onto the muddy underground ledge she was on. Hoping it wasn't another pool of purple goo, she examined it. All it seemed to be was an underground water tunnel, similar to the one when she faced while looking for the red, yellow and blue handle earlier.

It was very freezing, like jumping into an arctic pool with nothing to protect you from the cold bitterness. Taking a few deep breaths, Lara dunked her whole body into the reservoir and started to swim underneath the depths of the underwater tunnel. She managed to see okay underneath, but it had been nearly full of falling muck from the landings above.

After dodging a few electric eels and ferocious-looking fish that seemed to take pride that this passage was their home, Lara had nearly ran out of reversed breath. She needed to find an air pocket within the passage, or else she would drown. Breathing at a quick pace, she had found a small air pocket, above the passage where she was swimming, and dashed up there for a breather. It took a few moments and Lara saw something small glinting covered underneath where she was treading water.

She looked down making sure it wasn't her just seeing things, and again right under the water, she saw a slight red glint dug underground. Sucking in as much air as she can, Lara dived back underwater and swam towards the glistening red object. She brushed aside the dust surrounding the object, and finally saw what it was. A circular ruby red orb shone within the darkness of the underground water passage, Lara picked it up and it was quite heavy for what it was. Thinking ahead that she may need it later, and probably worth some value, she unhooked her backpack and placed the orb inside.

Lara continued her journey though the underground passage until out of the blue, there it was, another ledge for her to hoist herself out of the freezing pool. She swam upwards and quickly got out of the manhole, not feeling any better. In front of her was one of the scariest doorway's she had ever come across. It was a dark red accented bat figured door, shaped and crafted, as the bats mouth is the only way to enter through. Lara got closer to the ghastly doorway and inspected its fearsome properties. Brass steel doors were blocking the way forward, and these too were shaded and patterned in a dark red tone.

Lara was unable to get though, until she had noticed the two stands beside the door. One was on the left of it, while the other to the right side. Then she remembered what she had collected from the treasure room in the treasure chambers. That jewellery box containing those two diamonds, it had said that the two would open the way to the snake's lair. Lara took out the jewellery box, and opened it while observing the two stands, both had indents saying which diamond goes where. Lara inserted the blue diamond into the left side, and as for the right side, she inserted the red diamond. A shudder emerged from the doorway, as it gave a loud creak whilst opening, revealing stairs leading downwards into the core. Unsure what she may face down there, Lara's heartbeat started to increase in pace as she followed the stairs going down.


	7. Volcanic Temple

**-Volcanic Temple**

Hot, the word and the current thought that crossed Lara's mind, as she made it through the bat doorway and the stairs. The temperature was blazing hot compared to the caverns. Lara had entered into a huge hallway, unbelievable to be sure, there was lava covering almost nearly everywhere. At first, there was a lava stream flowing over two sides of the hall. Next there were small reservoirs of lava pits surrounding the hall. All were steaming away with a puff and a hiss. Because of this, the hall was very smoky and quite difficult to see in, but Lara was able to make out where she needed to go.

The environment of the hall wasn't a very pleasant one, as the texture all around was very rough. For example, the ground wasn't flat, but was very hard-stoned and the walls were covered in boulders, looking like they are going to be shot out of the wall. Despite this, Lara still carried onwards into the hallway. Minding every step she takes, so she wouldn't be in danger of plunging into the deathly lava. A few minutes had passed, and Lara managed to get herself to the end of the hallway. But this time around, it wasn't another door she had come across or had expected to. Instead it was another spooky statue that had been shaped as a long thin dragon. It was curved amazingly as every detail on the statue was made to exact measurement. It was coloured in a shaded light green, and it was incredible that it hadn't wore away from the intense heat inside.

The statue had a very wide opening, as if something was meant to be placed there. Lara found it hard not to imagine a dragon opening its mouth wide, and seeing the insides of it. She wondered what needed to be inserted into the dragon's mouth, and began to examine the width and length of what the object could be. 'Of course, the red orb I picked up back in the caverns!' Lara quickly rummaged through her backpack and got out the red orb. She inserted it straight into the mouth core of the dragon.

Unsteadily the ground started to shake, and one of the barricaded doorways started to open up, along with a secret opening to the left of it. Lava was now spitting out because of the sudden shake, Lara had to be careful where she treaded, not wanting her heel to touch any of the puddles from the spitting lava. While nearly tripping over the unlevel floor, Lara had made it to see what was hidden in the secret compartment. 'Another Panel Piece'!

The bright panel piece was glowing throughout the dark hall. Lara grabbed it, and set it aside along with the rest of the collected pieces in her backpack. She thought they must be all linked somehow, and moved onto the newly revealed passageway.

'Whoa!' Lara gasped. As she stepped onto the stairs of the newly revealed passageway, immediately by some sort of magic or mechanics, the stairs had been converted into one big slope. She slid down it with quite some speed, since it was very oily for some reason, and it had brought her into a huge pit with a strange statue or doorway. Lara dropped down, and rushed quickly to the centre, where the statue/doorway was built upon. She then realized what it had been.

It was a large doorway shaped into the head of a cobra snake, with glowing yellow flame eyes and mouth wide open, wanting to grab and take you inside. Lara looked through the doorway, but can only see a short drop onto a slope leading down. She had guessed that the snake guardian was down there, waiting for any intruder or prey that dared to enter inside. She had finally reached the snake guardian! The final key of unlocking the Nightmare Stone in the altar above, her heartbeat was going crazy, but she had to prepare herself for battle. Taking out her pistols, making sure they were fully reloaded ready for the snake guardian encounter, she took a few deep breaths, turned and dropped down into the abyss.

Right in the middle of sliding down upon the slope, Lara had finally seen the monster. There had been a huge nest, where the snake guardian was a king-sized gigantic cobra snake. It had sat there waiting for Lara's arrival, hissing away to its self. Until it finally saw Lara coming down the slope with her weapons aiming for its head. Lara came down from the slippery slope and into the guardian cobra snake's lair. Instantly the snake was preparing itself for a full on attack on Lara!

With its mouth raised wide open, the cobra was absorbing some kind of energy, and creating a ball to unleash on Lara. Automatically Lara could see the snake guardian had unnatural magical properties, and it was attacking in a similar fashion to the skeleton reaper. With the energy ball now prepared, the snake rapidly unleashed it upon Lara, who had to dash and jump out of the way from its impact. At this point, Lara was already shooting the snake as quick as she possibly can with her pistols, but the impacts from them were taking their time to really damage the snake. After dodging a few energy balls, the snake had enough of creating them, since they were not taking effect against Lara. The cobra then decided it would go for Lara itself, with its humungous fangs!

Able to foresee this change in its tactics, Lara withdrew from her shooting. As the snake slithered towards in her direction, she prepared herself for a huge roll going to one side of the room. It happened. The snake all of a sudden plunged forward at a speedy pace, while Lara moved as fast as she could to the other side, avoiding the venomous fangs in the process. The snake had nearly knocked down the whole ceiling, as it tried to attack Lara by hitting the wall instead.

Recovering from the side roll, Lara redrew her pistols and carried on counter-attacking the cobra. Finally the bullets from the pistols came into effect, as the snake was shaking continuously, trying to shake of the firing bullets. The cobra went for one final strategy, as if its life depended on this tactic. It slowly trailed around Lara, as if it was ready to bind her at once. Luckily, Lara foresaw this attack coming, so she waited until the snake thought it would have upper hand advantage. Without warning the snake squeezed it body into a wrap against Lara!

But unknown to it, Lara had jumped backwards out of the trap it had tried to set up. While the snake guardian was still thinking it had got her in its power, Lara aimed straight at the back of its hood. Four bullets later, the snake had given up on pursuing Lara, and had tried to regenerate itself by curling up into something that resembled a ball. But it was too late, Lara had gained up on the snake, and with one final blow the guardian cobra snake was no more.

As it had fallen, Lara examined the dead remains. The snake's mouth had been left open and Lara saw inside was some sort of crystal. This was the final key of unlocking the Nightmare Stone! 'The Crystal'! She gasped, and took it out from the snake's mouth as it began to rot. Lara stashed it into her backpack and got out the map, the deceased Illiat had given her a while ago. According to it, there should be an exit near where she was, so she began to make her way there.

It was exactly correct, as a doorway which Lara had never encountered before, she went though it and was immediately outside. Fresh air had been inhaled by Lara, as she had spent a long time inside that temple, 'Now time to get to the altar!' On the double, using the map as a guide, Lara made her way back to the altar with the 'X' orb. She approached it carefully, and re-examined it again after last time. There were four holes, for where Lara had guessed the four panel pieces go. One by one she placed each panel into their respective correct holes. They slowly turned by the mechanics hidden away at the altar, and it was time for Lara to offer the final key of unlocking the Nightmare Stone, the crystal.

Using the crystal and touching the flashing white 'X' orb, Lara reached out for the now unlocked Nightmare Stone. At last she was finally holding it in the palms of her hands! 'So this is the Nightmare Stone'. Lara could feel the amount of evil energy surrounding it, wanting to be unleashed into the world, so it can consume the whole world with its dark pleads. Lara then thought back to what Illiat had told her. 'Destroy the Nightmare Stone Lara... It is PURE EVIL'!

'Illiat was right, it must be destroyed' she thought, and Lara had made her way back into the volcanic temple, where she approached a pool of lava.

Giving it one final look, Lara held it upwards in her palms and threw it into the depths of the lava. It was there afloat on top of the lava for a short while, as if it wanted to reach out for Lara, and take her along it too into the boiling lava. Suddenly it began to crack, but afterwards began to sink into the lava, never to be seen again by a living soul, Quaxet's soul was finally destroyed. 'There, it's finally over!' A happy thought blew over Lara, but it did not last long.

Unexpectedly the lava began to erupt, and this eruption nearly splashed over Lara, "OH NO!" she shouted as the lava continuously erupted. Lara thought better, and decided to run towards the doorway leading outside. However as she was making her way, the volcanic temple started to shake violently. 'The whole place is collapsing! I've got to get out of here'! She ran as quickly as she could to the doorway, but just then a collapsing boulder just fell onto the passage out. Lara was unable to get out! 'Blast! The exit is blocked. I better find another way out of here'!

Stranded, Lara quickly thought of where she had seen possibly another exit, and then she remembered. 'Of course, the cobra's lair had an opening!' Swift as she can be, Lara made her way back into the guardian's lair. At the very end of the pit, there was indeed a hidden ladder leading straight upwards. Desperately wanting to save herself from the collapsing temple, Lara, under pressure rushed herself upwards, as hastily as her body capacity was capable. The lava started to rise up, and was disintegrating the lower part of the ladder!

On the double, Lara climbed up on the ladder, until finally she got to the end. Hoisting herself up, Lara saw bright light at the end of the tunnel, to where the ladder had led her. She sprinted as fast as she can to the light, as the temple began collapsing under its own weight. The light was beginning to fade, and using her last attempt, she jumped out towards the light. Fresh air was once again was rushing into her lungs. Not taking any more chances, Lara with all her remaining strength left, sprinted away from the temple. Black smoke began to rise from it. She must have travelled about a mile, before Lara thought she was within safe distance from the temple. She turned her back and saw the result of what happened.

The temple had exploded. Lava was erupting and pouring out of the remains covering around 400 metres of the circular ground around it, killing anything in its path. Lara then turned her attention to the crystal, which she had kept after unlocking the Nightmare Stone. Smiling to herself while panting, she thought 'Well at least the trip wasn't a total waste'. The crystal was glowing bright green, as Lara turned away from the wreckage of the temple and walked into the sunset.

Along the way, Lara had two things on her mind for when she would eventually return back home. First she would phone the professor, and tell him all about her exhausting adventure and the sad loss of Illiat. Without him, Lara wouldn't have been able to complete the journey. Finally, she would store the precious crystal within the trophy room in her mansion, along with all her precious collections and findings from previous adventures.

**The End**

Tomb Raider: Legend of the Nightmare Stone (Based On 'Tomb Raider' Game Boy Colour Game)

Copyright (C) 2011 Josh14Raider

Tomb Raider and Lara Croft

Copyright (C) Square Enix, Eidos Interactive, Core Design, THQ, and Crystal Dynamics

© Square Enix Ltd. Lara Croft and Tomb Raider are trademarks of Square Enix Ltd. All rights reserved.


End file.
